I have to admit that I don’t know what would have happened if I filed an IFR flight plan at FL 050 perhaps the plan would not have been accepted. I normally try to keep in the FL070 to FL 090 because I don’t often carry oxygen.
I do have mode S because it is mandatory in France for IFR flight.
I took off from Exeter and was immediately sent along the south coast and around the South of London, over Shoreham in fact.
At FL090 that could be wholly in CAS except for the bit west of EGHH.
What an interesting insight.
However in my PA28 which (when there is no ice) I hack around IFR OCAS all the time. Basically with just a working ADF, DME and skydemon I would have simply routed.
Shoreham- BIA-EX-STM. Yes at times I would be outside the promulgated range so I would have to dead reckon/skydemon.
The big problem I would have is what happens if Bournemouth say no you can’t come through. Then my only option is to use skydemon and craw my way around the zone. This I don’t like as I only have one method of navigation and no back up. I’ve has this with Solent a couple of times.
In fact I did a very similar route to this last month although I started out at Sandown.
Sure; this same route can be flown VFR, and if you do it at say 4500ft then you are below the enroute Class A.
You just need the SAM transit – which one gets perhaps 3/4 of the time. Or you work around Solent airspace… with extreme care because they 100% MOR everything; I also ask them to verify my TXP return altitude and I record the audio.
Then if you find yourself in IMC, you just carry on. To remain legal you need the IMCR or the IR, but to ATC this makes no difference so no need to even say anything. Anecdotally, “IFR” traffic gets more chance of a transit but that could be because the pilots are normally better on the radio and that will make a difference.
The problem is that there is often a layer say 3000ft-7000ft. Or just a layer of SC (the white fluff one gets in the summer). Below that, especially with wind, it is pretty rough. And above that you hit the Exeter Class A, and you hit the more involved Solent/SAM issue.
The flight described here was an attempt to do it properly and avoid these stupid issues, and end up with a smooth flight which a girlfriend appreciates 
I also forgot to add earlier that on the return flight, London Control left me with the squawk (4224) which they do quite often, all the way to landing at Shoreham. I would speculate that if one briefly re-entered CAS in the descent, the CAIT “bust detector” software would not pick you up because unless the LC ATCO presses some button to tell the system that he’s no longer talking to you, how could it know? Whereas if LC ask you to set 7000 (which they sometimes do) then CAIT will pick up a bust of even seconds because a 7000 code cannot possibly have a clearance for any Class A, and this is probably what happened to the pilot mentioned in the recent MOR.
Worth mentioning that since covid-19, Western Radar has been generally unavailable. I have usually been offered a service from Shanwick Mil east of Cardiff but don’t know how far west this service would go.
Funnily enough I posted this stuff on some UK GA social media and while I expected to get some “incoming” from ATC because of EuroGA’s carrying of the infringement discussions, I thought this one was interesting, from (apparently) an ATCO:
Of course coming to the boundary of controlled airspace terminates your clearance, it’s a well known rule, why don’t you understand this? They’re not joined bits of airspace, therefore you need a clearance to cross or enter that you aren’t already in.
Is this in ICAO somewhere? If it is, any country which offers a continuous route through bits of CAS/OCAS is in breach of the rule.
I have replied to the ATCO as follows:
Would you be able to point me to a reference for this, in SERA?
As someone working in the ATC system would will be familiar with the real need for a level playing field, and there are many countries in Europe who are openly flouting this rule by providing joined-up clearances, not to mention joined-up ATC services, starting with France which is perilously close to the British Border. These need to be reported to the EU for noncompliance with SERA.
Peter wrote:
Is this in ICAO somewhere? If it is, any country which offers a continuous route through bits of CAS/OCAS is in breach of the rule.
Yes and no. The relevant parts of PANS-ATM:
4.5.2.1 When a flight plan specifies that the initial portion of a flight will be uncontrolled, and that the subsequent portion of the flight will be subject to ATC, the aircraft shall be advised to obtain its clearance from the ATC unit in whose area controlled flight will be commenced.
4.5.2.2 When a flight plan specifies that the first portion of a flight will be subject to ATC, and that the subsequent portion will be uncontrolled, the aircraft shall normally be cleared to the point at which the controlled flight terminates.
4.5.6.1.2 After the initial clearance has been issued to an aircraft at the point of departure, it will be the responsibility of the appropriate ATC unit to issue an amended clearance whenever necessary and to issue traffic information, if required.
4.5.7.1.1 A clearance limit shall be described by specifying the name of the appropriate significant point, or aerodrome, or controlled airspace boundary.
4.5.7.1.2 When prior coordination has been effected with units under whose control the aircraft will subsequently come, or if there is reasonable assurance that it can be effected a reasonable time prior to their assumption of control, the clearance limit shall be the destination aerodrome or, if not practicable, an appropriate intermediate point, and coordination shall be expedited so that a clearance to the destination aerodrome may be issued as soon as possible.
4.5.7.1.3 If an aircraft has been cleared to an intermediate point in adjacent controlled airspace, the appropriate ATC unit will then be responsible for issuing, as soon as practicable, an amended clearance to the destination aerodrome.
4.5.7.1.4 When the destination aerodrome is outside controlled airspace, the ATC unit responsible for the last controlled airspace through which an aircraft will pass shall issue the appropriate clearance for flight to the limit of that controlled airspace.
My interpretation is that it is perfectly ok both to drop and keep the clearance when you leave CAS, but not to drop it silently. In that case there must be an explicit clearance limit at the border of CAS and the responsibility for issuing that clearance rests with the last ATC unit concerned with the flight.
there must be an explicit clearance limit at the border of CAS
I recall a discussion on that one… well more than one.
The UK does not do that for normal CAS passage. The only context in which I have heard that phrase “clearance limit is” was something different: approaching an ATC ATZ and the clearance limit being some VRP. But even the airport which used to do that doesn’t do it anymore (it was all Class G anyway).
Actually I don’t recall hearing that phrase anywhere outside the UK, ever.
4.5.6.1.2 After the initial clearance has been issued to an aircraft at the point of departure, it will be the responsibility of the appropriate ATC unit to issue an amended clearance whenever necessary and to issue traffic information, if required.
So if you get a clearance “to destination as filed” on departure (or any clearance to destination), then someone has to amend that clearance before dropping you out of the system. That doesn’t seem to be what’s happening in the UK.
you get a clearance “to destination as filed” on departure
This is another thing. The UK formally stopped using that terminology; a few years ago I recall. No idea of the exact motive but perhaps the obvious fact that it is a meaningless statement (except for a 747 going from Heathrow to New York) may have had something to do with it. If you fly from say Split LDSP to Shoreham you get the ritual “cleared to EGKA” but of course you are not. You may be cleared all the way through Croatian airspace… and in practice, IFR, you can expect to be cleared all the way to the UK boundary and that is where everything starts to break.
The UK is obviously not complying with the requirements posted by AA above, but it does silently terminate the clearance.
The UK ATCO who said “it’s a well known rule,” has in the meantime scarpered
